Last Chance
by SimplyG
Summary: "What are you doing here?" she asked her. After everything she had been through at the CIA, facing her mother was something that made her extremely uneasy. "Carrie, please…" "Two years. It's been two years." Carrie comes face to face with her mother two years after the events at the end of season 4. What will happend between the two of them? Enjoy! Rating M for swearing


Hello to all Homeland fans! After rewatching "Long Time Coming", one of my favourite episodes despite all the criticism, this idea came to mind. I hope you like it! I haven't been writing in a long time, so forvige me if I'm a bit rusty. :) English is not my mother language so, please, if you find mistakes leave me a comment. It'll be much appreciate it! Leave a comment below if you want. I'll be grateful. I'll leave you to the story. Byeee!

Disclaimer: I don't own Homeland. It belongs to Showtime.

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"Hi Carrie."

Carrie stared in shock at the woman standing on front of her. I had been 2 two years since the last time she saw her. No birthday or Christmas cards. Nothing.

And then suddenly there she was.

Carrie's mind went black, her limbs numb. The hand that was resting on the doorknob slowly fell to her side.

"What are you doing here?" she asked her. After everything she had been through at the CIA, facing her mother was something that made her extremely uneasy.

"Carrie, please…"

"Two years. It's been two years." she answered back. Her utter shock had been replaced by anger. Despite the medicine she regularly took, her illness still affected her deeply. She raised a hand, making it rest on the door, as a way of preventing her mother from seeing inside her house and of course entering it.

"I know. I'm so sorr…"

"Save it." she interrupted her. She didn't want to hear the same pathetic excuse. A draft of wind brushed through her hair. It was a warm spring morning; in fact the evening before she had decided she would wear the same black sleeveless dress she had worn that same day two years before. "I don't want to hear it. You said you would try, you said you wanted to be involved in our lives and then… you vanished from the face of the Earth."

Both women stood quietly after Carrie's accusation.

"Goodbye, mom."

But a soon as she started pushing the door in order to close it, her mom spoke again.

"Carrie, please. Hear me out. I'm sorry, I'm deeply sorry. I had problems with your brother…"

"He's not my brother. I don't even know he existed until 2 years ago." Carrie moved a strand of hair that had fallen on her face and looked away from the almost-unknown woman.

"He's still part of your family."

A sudden rage woke up inside of her: thanks to her, "family" had a very different meaning from what the majority of the population was accustomed to. As of the day her mother walked away from her, her father and her sister Maggie, family consisted of the three of them.

And now Frannie and the man she's been sharing her life with.

But apparently her mother realized that was a touchy subject and decided to stop pressuring her about it.

"Ok, I'm sorry." she said before Carrie even opened her mouth to display her anger. "Please, Carrie. I'm not asking you to forgive me straightaway… I just want us to start having a relationship again."

"It wasn't my fault how our "relationship", as you want to call it, fell to fucking pieces." The sarcastic yet accusatory tone in her voice made her mother do an irritated gesture. Carrie briefly smiled. If she could get to her nerves, Carrie wouldn't even had to kick her out of her driveway.

"Carrie, I'm sorry. Let's start again…"

"That what you said two years ago, _mom_."

The older woman ran her hand across her face and turned her back to her daughter. For a second she remembered all the fights she used to have with Frank about insignificant things, fights that were enhanced by her former husband's disease.

As her mother was trying to cool off and find the words to have an appropriate conversation with her daughter without fighting, Carrie heard tiny feet running down the stairs.

 _Fuck_ thought Carrie. She didn't want her mother to meet her daughter. Little Franny appeared in front of the two women, a smile on her chubby face.

"Mama!" she ran towards her, arms opened and waiting for her mother to catch her. As soon as she saw Franny, Carrie's expression completely changed. A huge grin appeared on her face as she scooped her up in her arms.

"Hi, baby girl!" she said hugging her closely. She quickly eyed her mother: thank God she had the decency to keep her mouth shut. She had to get her daughter away from her mother. Immediately.

"Why don't you go play upstairs, ok?" she tilted her head back a bit, just to make sure Franny was listening.

"No… wif you."

Carrie snorted.

 _Fuck_

She felt his presence behind her and she calmed herself. He always tended to have that effect on her. In a slow movement, she turned her head and looked at him: she was pretty sure her mother couldn't see him. Thank God.

"I have to go." she couldn't stop those word coming out of her mouth. She had to protect them: she wouldn't have let her mother fuck up all her relationships. Not this time.

"Carrie, please. I just want to have a normal decent conversation with you. I don't think I'm asking too much."

Franny rested her head on her mother's shoulder, letting her bright red hair cover her face and looking curiously at the other woman.

"Don't you see? I can't talk right now." Carrie wrapped her arms closely around her daughter. She felt bad for using her, but really? What kind of fucking conversation was she planning on having? " _Tell me all about the last 17 years of your life?"_ Carrie closed her eyes for a moment. Despite the fact that her mother had indirectly helped her relationship with the man standing 10 feet behind her, she hadn't had a mother in almost 20 years: she couldn't just waltz back into her life like nothing happened. She was a mother herself now, she had a great kid and finally an almost balanced life. After her father's sudden death she promised to take care of Franny, to be there for her as a mother should.

Allowing her daughter to have a relationship with her grandmother, the same woman that disappeared from her life twice, was not something Carrie was willing to do. It didn't matter if she got hurt: she had learnt to survive without her, but letting her kid going through all of that was out of the picture. She had to be sure that slowly and carefully letting her mother back into her life, wouldn't hurt Franny in the process.

Her mother looked at her a bit disappointed. She had driven a long way to reconnect with her daughter and although Maggie was a lot more welcoming than Carrie, she had hoped her trip would have been more successful.

"When _can_ we talk, Carrie?"

Behind her, she heard him moving towards her, making slow and calculated steps. Trying not to give away his presence, she turned slightly shaking her head in order to stop him.

But he ignored her and stood right behind her, opening his arms towards Franny.

"Let me take her and go talk to your mother" he whispered.

"Da-da…" said Franny with a smile, jumping up and down in Carrie's arms.

 _Fuck_

Her mother's head moved to the left to try and see who it was behind the door.

"Come with me, honey."

He took Franny from her mother's arm and walked towards the kitchen. He was surprised: he didn't think she would had let him.

"Are you married?" Carrie turned towards her mother, a dark look on her face.

"Please, not today. I can't talk today. Can't say I'm glad to see you. Goodbye." without thinking twice she shut her door in her face.

"Carrie, please! This time I'm not leaving." Carrie snorted, covering her face with her hands.

"You should talk to her." his voice was calm, soothing.

Truth to be told, she was pissed with him. How dare he interfere with this?

"It's not of your fucking business." she answered him sharply. He turned his face just a bit, giving her only a side glance.

"I know. I'm sorry." he whispered. "But you shouldn't let her go away."

"She abandoned us! Both me and Maggie! She came back for my dad's funeral, two day after it happened and then vanished for two more years!" she was shouting, her face red with anger, her eyes wide opened and a hint of her crazy off-lithium expression.

Franny looked at her: she was used to her mother being a bit crazy. She just smiled at her and said: "Mama."

He walked away from the counter where he was preparing a snack for Franny and stood right in front of her. She had to look up to see his face: he was quite taller than her. He grinned, putting his hands on her arms as a way of reassuring her.

"Carrie, just listen to her. Let her stay for dinner. Take this opportunity. Last time it helped. If she fucks up again, then fuck her."

This time he fully smiled and she did too. She slightly moved her head, looking to the right and then the left, trying to make up her mind before she took a step closer to him and hugged him.

She put her head on his shoulder and muttered:

"Can you?"

He wrapped his arms around her, running his hands up and down her back.

"Sure, Carrie."

He disentangle himself from her and sprinted towards the door. Ellen Mathison was in their driveway, walking back and forth.

"Hi." he said.

Ellen stopped and looked at him. The first thing she noticed: he didn't have red hair. He wasn't the father of the baby. Then she saw how calm he was, controlled. And yet his smile, despite being an honest one, was somehow strange. Like it wasn't something he was used to, something out of the ordinary.

"Hello."

"I'm Peter Quinn." he said extending a hand towards her. She politely accepted his gesture and shook his hand.

"Ellen Mathison, Carrie's mother." she introduced herself, even though she knew it was highly probable he knew all about her and her history with Carrie.

"I know." he smiled again. "Would you like to stay for dinner?" He gestured towards the door. "Please"

Both of them moved towards the front entrance of the house and got in.

Carrie was leaning against the counter, her arms crossed.

"This is the last chance you'll get. If you screw up, then it's your fucking problem. I don't care."

Ellen nodded. Quinn walking towards Carrie, standing directly in front of her, hiding her from Ellen's sight. He raise a hand, letting it rest on her hip.

"If at any point of the evening you want her out, she's out." he whispered. She smiled and got to her tiptoe and kissed him.

"Thank you."

Quinn smiled uncomfortably. He wasn't used to kissing people and showing affection in front of other people, and neither was Carrie. She winked at him.

She just wanted to show her mother she was ok, and that Ellen hadn't messed up with her life the way she actually did.

Quinn turned towards Ellen, still smiling. That was probably the most he had smiled in a long time.

"Please, make yourself comfortable."


End file.
